The Pre-Marnic Years
Years are numbered backwards in the Pre-Marnic Era: that is, the period before the establishment of the Marnic Federation. Therefore, eighty years before Confederation would be rendered PMY 80. c. 3800: A silver wyrm named Neayradguuliozhast arrives in Kerlonna, having travelled from unknown parts, and begins taking many journeys among the human tribes and the ancient city-states of Injil, always in the guise of a man. He mates with women from all parts: temple prostitutes in Injil, huntresses in the Vrotispal Range, horse-nomads out on the Kruvates Plains… He continues this for two centuries, travelling about and impregnating women, and all of them give birth to silver half-dragons. c. 3600: Neayradguuliozhast, his name whispered among the humans as “Nyadeg”, casts a powerful spell that allows him to communicate telepathically with all of his children. He informs them that he fathered them all for a purpose: to form an almighty army that would destroy the chromatic dragons. He is shocked, however, when almost all of his children (the “Nyadegtaan”) flatly rebuff him, out of anger and resentment that he abandoned them during their childhoods, and did not help to protect them from the world when they grew up. For most of the Nyadegtaan, their lives were spent wandering in the wilderness, having been driven away from the tribes that birthed them. Heartbroken by their refusal, Nyadeg leaves Kerlonna for the far north, but on his way, he is ambushed and attacked by white dragons. Sensing his deathly agony, the Nyadegtaan somehow tap into a racial magic that allows them to teleport instantly to their father’s side, where they slay his attackers. However, the damage was already done, and the great wyrm lay dying. He asked that they act in accordance with his vision, which the Nyadegtaan promised, allowing Nyadeg to die in peace. c. 3550: The Nyadegtaan, after thirty years of having dwelt at the island on which Nyadeg died, and twenty years after that of having wandered in exile across northern Kerlonna, settle in the caldera of an extinct volcano, at the bottom of which lies a beautifully still, clear lake. The Nyadegtaan call it Ezluthai, “pool of refuge,” and begin building a town on its shores. c. 2940: This is the probable date for the creation of the Tablets of Šaruksrpad, the earliest example of actual writing in Kerlonna. The tablets, held deep within the sanctum of an Old Injili temple, detail a ritual whereby one king may seize the crown of another spiritually, enslaving the weaker king to his will. c. 1550: The Binding War: Resentment and hatred for Emperor Kjuptal reaches a boiling point in Old Injil when he demands that Ubdir Kaħez, a half-elven wizard originally from the northern reaches of the empire, be presented at the All-Temple in Imrohaaj to be sacrificed, making it clear that not even members of the magocracy are safe from Kjuptal’s insane aspirations to godhood. Civil war breaks out across the empire between loyalists to Kjuptal and rebels who support the establishment of a republican government, free from the emperor’s tyrannical madness. The war is waged mainly within the magocracy, leaving the bulk of the population largely unscathed: much of the “war” in fact consists of assassinations and skirmishes. Neither faction wishes to destroy the empire, and so the most ruinous battles are fought between wizards in agreed-upon locations in the wilderness. Nevertheless, the war is massively deleterious to the empire’s functioning, since the everyday process of governing is hamstrung by distrust and civil conflict among the magocracy. Eventually, however, the rebels gain their victory through sheer, unthinkable audacity: they completely destroy Imrohaaj, thus annihilating their empire’s oldest and most glorious city. Kjuptal survives the devastation, but he is so maddened with pain and rage that he loses all reason, and despite lashing out with incredible power, he is inevitably subdued by the strongest of the rebel-mages, who bind him and cast him deep beneath the Sea of Injil, thus ending his reign as Old Injil’s Emperor. For decades after the war’s conclusion, the rebels hunt for those wizards who refuse to renounce their loyalist allegiances, many of whom flee beyond Kerlonna into Zresskeilt or across the Great Western Dakylsthas. Relentlessly, the rebels capture or assassinate every remaining loyalist. The captives are imprisoned within a massive containment facility, where they are put in suspended animation: among the prisoners is Kjuptal’s daughter, Aishranve. Despite their victory, the rebels have great trouble administering the empire in the aftermath of the Binding War, and distrust and suspicion mar every level of both the military and the government. 1542: According to traditional Tefaruqi accounts, Rkagyu was born in the summer of this year: in Tefaruq, their years are dated from this event. Their myths claim that at birth, the future man-god roared with a lion’s voice, setting the earth to trembling. c. 1500: The War for the Dawn: Owing to its political instability and the divided state of its military in the aftermath of the Binding War, Old Injil is weaker now than it had been for a thousand years. A massive and coordinated dwarven slave rebellion breaks out in the western reaches of the empire. This coincides with a Tefaruqi war for independence under the leadership of Rkagyu, who has become a deathless god-hero inspiring fanatical loyalty among his followers. The dwarves, both enslaved and free, unite behind Romaldur, a prophet who speaks of “the Faceless God” as a supreme racial deity: astonishingly, all dwarves who worship this God are cured of their blindness. Gradually, other races are drawn into war: elves attack in lightning raids from their forests, the Duhumor begin breaking out of their magical compulsion and flee into the wild after wreaking vengeance on their erstwhile owners, and the Nyadegtaan seize control of all Old Injili outposts and holdings in the Vrotispal Range, cutting off land access between the western and eastern halves of the empire. Inspired by the dwarves, human and half-elven slaves revolt as well. Eventually, the entirety of Kerlonna is plunged into war between Old Injil and its various internal and external enemies, who take the sigil of a rising sun for their common symbol and call themselves “the Hosts of the Dawn.” The conflict lasts many years, and while the Old Injili almost always win in large-scale confrontations, the Hosts of the Dawn are too variegated and persistent to ever be defeated, and the empire’s economy and society crumble under the strain of war. Approximately a dozen years after the War for the Dawn began, slave rebellions break out within the Injili homeland itself. The most destructive of these is in the city of Aškam, wherein the rebellious slaves are led by a renegade Old Injili wizard known only as “the Breaker of Chains.” In the end, the Breaker of Chains and a group of warrior-heroes stay behind to blast the city to rubble with magic, while the rest of the slaves—including a human tribe known as the Rauprig-mut—flee into the wilderness. Somewhere around fifteen years into the war, the magocracy formally cedes control of all territory outside of the Sea of Injil to the Hosts of the Dawn, thus ending Old Injil’s status as an empire, but the mages refuse to emancipate the slaves within the Injili homeland, and instead prosecute the war against them even more viciously. After this, the order of events becomes unclear, due to the total lack of records, but the eventual result is clear: all dwarven slaves within the Injili homeland are rescued, the magocratic government collapses, and Injili civilization enters a dark age, during which most of its surviving wizards go into exile and its population enters a precipitous decline. c. 1450: The hill tribes and clans of what is today Tefaruq unite formally into one nation under the rule of Rkagyu and his Eternal Disciples. At the same time, the land’s borders are completely sealed off, and have remained such to this day. c. 1430: From ancient treasures buried along the shores of the Geñkaryo River, it can be guessed that this period was when the Rauprig-mut dwelled along its banks and named Yuhara their first king. Yuhara takes for a bride the orphan Selladanzi, raising her as queen of the Rauprig-mut. Selladanzi, who is barren, prays for the gods to give her a means to provide Yuhara an heir, and Liovniru, the Grinning God of night, trickery, and dreams, descends from the heavens and lays with her, impregnating her with a godling son, who is named Hauraza at birth. c. 1418: Hauraza has grown up well, and manifests prophetic abilities of dream-telling and divination. After accusations that Hauraza is not Yuhara’s son are whispered among the Rauprig-mut, Yuhara wrathfully declares that any who say such a thing will be punished. Liovniru, offended that the King would believe prophetic ability to come from his bloodline, spitefully informs Yuhara that Hauraza is not the king’s son. While Yuhara forgives his wife for her infidelity (since no mortal can resist the seduction of Liovniru), he declares that a baseborn child cannot live among the Rauprig-mut, and banishes Hauraza into the wilderness. c. 1416: The Rauprig-mut have suffered two years of appalling bad luck, owing to their having offended Liovniru by exiling his son. Cursing Yuhara for having misled their tribe into disaster, the king’s three closest servants (Azirnyul the hunter, Italkus the smith, and Ontyera the bard) abandon him, each leading a portion of the Rauprig-mut away to form a new tribe. Yuhara is given a prophecy that the last guest that he entertains at his royal house will unite the Rauprig-mut and become the new king. c. 1411: Its lord dying of consumption, Yuhara’s hall is but a shadow of its former glory, and only Selladanzi is willing to approach his diseased body, to bathe and clean him. One bitter winter night, a young man comes to the door and requests sanctuary from the snow. As he sits at supper, many in the hall feel a strange sense of recognition… but before they can ask him who he is, Yuhara has a violent coughing fit, and falls unconscious. Later that night, he rouses from it long enough to recount the prophecy to the young guest, who reveals himself to be Hauraza. Hauraza is consecrated as the King of the Rauprig-mut as Yuhara dies, and he gives his adoptive father a funeral pyre worthy of his station. c. 1406: Hauraza is visited by a mysterious woman with golden eyes, who is so enchantingly seductive that even he, no man for women, chooses to lie with her. Months later, she arrives with a dragon egg, which she gives to him before leaving once again. When the egg hatches, it does not produce a dragon wyrmling, but a half-dragon, half-human child who is unquestionably Hauraza’s son; but where Hauraza’s hair was black as night, this child’s was white as frost. Hauraza names him “Drasven.” c. 1376: In battle with a barbarian tribe from the mountains, Lainna, the lover of King Hauraza, is cruelly slain. Hauraza is driven into a frenzy of hatred, and fights so recklessly and wantonly that the barbarians are slain to a man. However, Hauraza is mortally injured by their spears, and is brought back to his hall in a litter. Hauraza confers his office as King of the Rauprig-mut upon Drasven, his son, and dies soon after. Hauraza and Lainna are buried, side-by-side, along the shores of the River Rau. As Drasven prepares to lead his people, however, the tribe wakes up one morning to discover that they have been transported to an alien land, a cool jungle of moss and towering conifers. The Dragon-Exile has begun. c. 1100: Founding of Kemret by Režãn Daprakhos, after whom the city’s later kings are all given their monarchical title. c. 840: Founding of Cil Adasiga by a Tlankuric tribe that the Songs of the Elders call the “Adasigoi.” c. 700: Drasven and the Rauprig-mut, after six centuries of the Dragon-Exile, return to their fatherland, the River Rau, and find that their tribe has long since been forgotten, their lands reclaimed by various tribes and under the political power of the city of Amvidra. Drasven and his twelve sons lead the Rauprig-mut in war against the “thieving nations”, destroying some, enslaving others, and driving the rest permanently out of the Rau Valley. 7th century: Founding of Marnoz by Drasven the Sorcerer-King and his twelve sons, all of whom share his silver-white hair and magical abilities: Zaiyon, Dahav, Sakvaru, Vrutsän, Luwätas, Yadnorsae, Riġuzan, Elheren, Uñkices, Kiryo, Olituros, and Ärigmi. The bloodlines of Drasven’s twelve sons will eventually become known as the High Houses of Marnoz. 526: King Drasven of Marnoz dies at well over eight hundred years old, succeeded by his youngest son and appointed heir, Ärigmi, who is two hundred and four. c. 445: Režãn Hiyuri, the twenty-sixth Daprakhos of Kemret, orders that the city’s laws be organised into a series of modernised edicts, carved in stone at every crossroads within the city’s domain. The Decrees of Hiyuri, as they become known after the Daprakhos’ death, are the first written legal code since the War for the Dawn a thousand years previous ended Old Injili civilisation. 284: King Ärigmi of Marnoz dies in the two hundred and forty-second year of his reign, at four hundred and forty-six years old. He is succeeded by his great-grandson, Kandirza the Winged of High House Ärigmi, who is seventy-five. 250: The Guild is formed from the unification of four wizardly orders: the Brethren of Shilva, the Vowkeepers, the Kasurlel, and the Uncrowned Kings. 245: King Kandirza the Winged of Marnoz dies in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, at one hundred and fourteen years old. He is succeeded by his grandson, Imsaruya Ärigmi, who is fifty-six. 220: The Heart-Plague, a mysterious and ruinous affliction, appears in Idroslekh after having been brought over the Great Western Dakylsthas, and causes catastrophic population loss: half of Kemret’s inhabitants die. Alarmed at the arrival of this disease, the young Guild quickly spreads news of it to non-wizards, and in response, all trade and travel between western Kerlonna (Idroslekh and the lands of the K’usar) and eastern Kerlonna is completely cut off to stop the spread of infection. The way remains shut for the next three hundred years. 218: The ancient kingdoms of the Janhlira thrown into chaos by the arrival of the Heart-Plague, three powerful war-chieftains lead several tribes into exile. They are known as the Brother-Kings: Þukyr, Freijan, and Askejut. Sailing into the north, the Janhlira land upon the shores of Edrask, where they promptly begin waging war against the natives, known as the Raven Folk. 205: King Imsaruya Ärigmi dies in the fortieth year of his reign, at ninety-six years old. He is succeeded by his grandson, Usrälvna Ärigmi, who is forty-nine and the last of his House to wield a sorcerer’s powers. 189: King Usrälvna Ärigmi, the fifth Sorcerer-King of Marnoz, abolishes his own office in the sixteenth year of his reign, aged sixty-five. He assembles the history of Marnoz from its foundation to the event of his abdication—a passage of more than four centuries—into a blend of folk tales, poetry and historical account that comes to be known as The Words of King Usrälvna. Following the King’s abdication, supreme political authority in Marnoz is handed over to the High Senate, which shares power equally between the different bloodlines of King Drasven. c. 100: After centuries of quasi-enslavement under the imperialistic policies of the magocracy of Apatkh (a relict portion of the Old Injili Empire, autarkic and obscenely corrupt), the human tribes of the White Thirst rise up in rebellion against their wizard masters. This rebellion is championed by five young and daring heroes, who lead such successful guerrilla strikes against the Aptakhi slavers that the raids are halted altogether for five years. However, during the delving of an ancient blue dragon’s lair, the wizard of the party, an Aptakhi turncoat named Roshag, reverts to his original loyalties, aiding a group of Aptakhi assassins in slaying the other four heroes. The rebellion falters and collapses with the betrayal and death of its most charismatic and resourceful leaders. 5: An agreement is reached between the High Senates of Marnoz, the Four Princes of Amvidra, the King of Herarzä, and the Speaker of Cil Adasiga, to unite under the guidance of the High Senate of Marnoz. Marnoz declares war upon Eädreñ. Spring of 3: The King of Eädreñ surrenders to Marnoz, and the Eädric military is abolished. Records are unclear on the Eädric king’s fate: folk tradition asserts that he was exiled to the Sea of Injil. 1: The Marnic Federation is established, the Marnic Federal Legions are officially created, and the Federal Count of Years is instated following the winter solstice.